Thank you again for being with ChefTalk.com this week it is really an honor. I was curious what your thoughts are on the difference between pasteurized cheese and un-pasteurized cheese. Does the process of pasteurizing the cheese really destroy a lot of the flavor and do you feel it is a necessary process for small batch artisan cheeses?

I enjoy raw milk cheeses and have probably made more raw that pasteurized......those were the good old days of walking to school up hill in 6 inches of snow......

Absolutely not.....you can chose and blend culture is get the right flavor profile in a pasteurized cheese. It is easier to control flavor and consistency and body..

When you use raw milk you have a vastly different flora in the milk on a daily basis.... seasonally, weather, point in lactation cycle of the animal.
You have to many variables for a consistly good product......for maybe 2% of the total being better than Pasteurized and 80% not being as good.

I could see how pasteurized milk would be more consistent as you have near-full control over the bacterial cultures that are present to create the desired characteristics.

In biology we were taught that in the microbial world, nothing will "set up shop", that is in general of course, where something is already 'open for buisness'. In short, the added cultures don't have any competition in pasteurized milk as opposed to unpasteurized.